During the 1970s, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai was reputed to have said it was “too early” to assess the implications of the French revolution almost two centuries earlier. The same could be said of Man Group’s acquisition of GLG Partners.

Three years ago this month, Man Group announced it was buying hedge fund manager GLG Partners. The idea was to create a more diversified product offering: relieving the pressure on AHL, Man Group's troubled quantitative flagship fund, by adding GLG's discretionary products.